Charlie followed me through the tree. We were on a gigantic meadow that bordered a lake almost the same size, where a small cottage stood on the shore. Together we drove to the hut.
On the way, Charlie suddenly let out a loud cry. 'Belle! Bel, look up there! Is that a dragon? This is the first time I've seen one in real life.'
'Yeah, and you're going to see many more, much closer', I smiled.
After we put our mountain bikes against the wall, I went inside to get a big horn.
'Shut your ears', I warned Charlie. I already had earplugs on. A loud unique tone came from the horn when I blew it.
'Just wait a minute.'

From afar a beautiful green dragon came flying straight at us.
'Belle, watch out!' cried Charlie, seeing the danger approaching.
'It's okay', I reassured him. The Common Green Welsh landed right in front of me. She was only half the size of an adult dragon, so not much taller than me.
'Charl, this is Gwyrdan', I introduced the dragon.
'Gwyrdan?'
'I didn't choose the name, okay.' Lovingly I caressed her nose. Charlie dared to come closer.
'Pet her, she won't do anything.' It was instant love between him and the dragon.
'How old is she?'
'Now two and a half years. She will grow considerably and will probably be bigger than the average Green Welsh. My stepfather gave her egg to me after my mother died. He never liked me, but he said he wanted to give it to her for a long time, so he gave it to me. Soon Gwyrdan grew too big for my apartment. So I moved her here. Before Hogwarts I almost lived here.'
'Wow, so every time you want to come and visit her, you have to travel more than half a day?' 'Indeed. God I'm so looking forward to the day I get to apparate.'
'Can't you travel with the floo network?' suggested Charlie.
'Then I have to connect my fireplace to the network and if I already knew how to do that, we can't use magic at home anyway. So that's not possible.'

After a while I asked: 'Would you like to fly on her?'
'You mean on her back? Isn't that dangerous? Like isn't she still too young for that?'
'Never underestimate a dragon, she's stronger than you think.'
I went inside the house and got a big, thick cloth and two pairs of gloves.
'Gwyrdan lie down!' I commanded. The dragon lay as flat as possible on the ground. I pulled the thick cloth over her back.
'Here wear this', I gave Charlie a pair of gloves, 'They prevent your hands from freezing off in the air.' Although it was warm in the evening sun, the wind could change that a lot. I climbed on the canvas first, Charlie sat down behind me.
'Hold me tight! Gwyrdan can be a little uncareful when taking off.'
'You only say that now?'
'Try to stay horizontal girl', I encouraged the dragon. But despite what I said, she almost threw us off when she took up. Once we were safely in the air, we were able to enjoy a beautiful view. 'Look! A golden eagle', I pointed to the beautiful bird flying below us.
'Aren't golden eagles normally super big?'
I grinned at Charlie's statement: 'They're indeed super big, just not from here.'
'Wow, we must be very high.'

Suddenly Gwyrdan noticed a herd of cows some distance away.
When she started to descend I reprimanded her: 'No, don't hunt with people on your back. You can catch them after you drop us off.' I didn't think the dragon could really understand me. Maybe she heard it in the tone of my speaking or maybe it was because I was pulling her neck up with all my might, which only felt like a gentle tingle to her. But she listened to me.

After flying for a while, we had to go through an exciting moment. We came across another dragon. Fortunately it was also a Common Green Welsh, otherwise we would have been further from home. Dragons of the same species could still get along, except for two males sometimes, they could fight. But Gwyrdan greeted the dragon with a strange roar. The other dragon roared back. They passed each other without a problem and flew on. I breathed a sigh of relief.

As the sun began to set, I decided it was time to turn back. We weren't that far from the meadow and the cottage, so we landed before dusk.
'Good girl,' I complimented Gwyrdan when she was unsaddled, 'Go and catch a cow now, you diserve it.'
'Belle, I want to thank you for giving me the best experience of my life. My friends would never believe me.'
'So keep our trip a secret for now.' The idea of Charlie bragging to all of Gryffindor that I had a dragon didn't appeal to me.
'Anyway, we won't be getting home today, so would you like some marshmallows?' With some wood from the woodpile and a swing of my wand, a fire was quickly burning in the fire pit. While roasting marshmallows, we watched the sun go down together.
'Candy for dinner, my mother would never allow this.'
'Oh, I also have food with me.'
'What else do you have in that backpack?' I took a package of spaghetti and a jar of cheese sauce, which I had prepared at home, from the bag.
'Be sure to always be prepared for anything.' When the pasta was cooked, we could still eat something nutritious. With our bellies filled, we fell asleep.

In the morning we had a long return journey ahead of us. We said goodbye to my green dragon, left the cottage well cared for and cycled back to the village on our mountain bikes.
'I don't understand how you know your way around here so well.'
'Oh, if only you knew how much I've been lost cycling here.'
Arriving in Druthpel, I paid the man at the cash register the extra hours we had been gone. Before we got on the bus to Llanrwst, we took out pastries. On the train, Charlie kindly declined my suggestion to listen to the Walkman playlist again. Instead, we spent hours talking about anything and everything. It felt like we were back on the Hogwarts Express together for the first time.
'You should definitely come to my house at the end of the holidays. Then we can go together to the Diagon Alley.'
'Deal' The less I was alone the better.
Back at my apartment, I ordered pizza, especially when Charlie admitted he'd never eaten it before. '
'Here, I promised you this one.' The first Star Wars movie started playing.
When he ended, Charlie was already as big a fan as I was.
But he also made the same comment: 'Hey, why isn't Chewbacca getting a medal?'
'I definitely have to tell my dad about this, he would love the movie.'
'The second part is for the next vacation.'
'Is there also a part two?'
'Yes, even a part three.'
In the evening I said goodby to Charlie when the Knight bus arrived.
'Wish me luck', he said, clearly dreading getting back on the bus.
'Good luck', I grinned at him. With the same bang as he had arrived, he left.